Let Love Bleed Red
by ThatYoungAuthor
Summary: "Sebastian, this is an order. Come for me." 126 years have passed since the horrifying murder of Ciel Phantomhive. Sebastian Michaelis who had ceased to exist after failing to fulfill the contract has struggled to rise again from the remains, being born again. Fate has plans for the two, uniting them once again at the lake Ciel died at. Had the boy really left earth after all?
1. Come for me

Let Love Bleed Red

Authors Note: It might sound disturbing but trust me, it's not. I've got everything planned and organized so don't worry, this is not going to be one of those fanfics where nothing makes sense. Enjoy!

Also, I posted this chapter earlier, but for some reason the entire text came out as one chunk, so I'm publishing this again.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji or any of the characters.

Chapter 1

"Come for me."

xxx

xxx

The boundaries of death have never before been crossed. When one encountered the end of their life span, the following was set in stone: there was no way back. Everything that individual had once been and would ever be had come to it's demise, for their very own existence had fallen into a state of unconsciousness - a state where nothing any longer meant anything. However, Ciel Phantomhive didn't die an ordinary death. The demonic contract prevented the young earl from leaving the earth's crust as his organic systems shut down, and his body was made incapable of living. The fate of this poor being, it was like no other.

Years had passed since the front covers of the news papers of England all presented the same bold text, printed in huge black Helvetica letters:

"**THE HEAD OF THE PHANTOMHIVE NOBLE FAMILY IS DEAD.**"

The murder was unsolved, as the police claimed after months of investigating without getting any further to the solution of the case. All that the police and doctors had predicted from the lifeless corpse of the blood-covered earl, had been only the possible cause of death.

Ciel had been missing for two days before he had been discovered dead in the shallow waters of the shore in a lake in the woods, tangled in a bed of slimy reeds, his soaked blood stained clothes sticking to his cold skin. The doctors concluded that the boy must've been hit with a sharp blade, judging by the marks possibly with an axe, on his legs and ribs. The blows hadn't been targeted towards vital areas nor had they been deep enough to kill, so the police suspected it had only been to slow down or to torture the victim. Another very peculiar thing about the corpse was that his right eye, which the earl had been known for hiding under a black eyepatch, was blinded. The eye had been deformed in a way that not even color of the iris was visible, but the damage had only been done to one eye, raising inquiring questions among the investigators.

As his lungs had been filled with lake water, the true cause of death had been drowning. The murderer had never been found, even though the police greatly suspected a certain man.

Sebastian Michaelis, the butler of the Ciel Phantomhive, had disappeared like smoke into thin air the next day Ciel had mysteriously gone missing. The servants of the Phantomhive manor had confirmed that when they had last seen Sebastian, the man had looked drained out and agonized, as if he hadn't eaten for days. Nobody had seen the butler ever since, and no matter how the police tried to track him down, it seemed like he was nowhere to be found.

The tragic loss of the young Phantomhive struck the citizens of England, at the same time causing a fluster over the unknown murderer who walked among them, and evoking their sympathy towards the poor victim and his loved ones. Especially the eulogy written by Elizabeth Midford, Ciel's fiance, managed to make readers sweep their tears away as they read from the news paper the mournful lines Elizabeth had scribbled down.

Oh, how little did humanity know of the true events that took place that dreadful night when the touch of malice was heavier in the air than ever before. They knew nothing about the infernal anguish and predicament the poor boys soul was cursed into, nor about the reality of Sebastian Michaelis' disappearance. Humanity knew nothing, and wouldn't ever unravel this entanglement of secrets: they were doomed to be forever clueless.

xxx

**Spring 1888, 18th of April**

"_Sebastian Michaelis." _

_The tone he used was just as flat and apathetic as the inner core of the man - just as cold as the frozen heart of his. Ciel felt Sebastian's grip of his shoulder tighten in the wanting to protect the young earl, and even though the demon butler looked calm and unaffected otherwise, the way he held Ciel told a whole other story. _

"_I believe the time to erase your existence from the world has finally come." Claude spoke again, resting a demonic sword on his shoulder which he had flung there in a confident manner. At the end of his sentence, Ciel detected the tiniest bit of amusement which the demon let to uncover behind his words, and it only added to the anger of the young Phantomhive. There was absolutely no way Claude would defeat Sebastian and slay him with that ridiculous demon sword of his - not if Ciel specifically ordered his butler to kill Claude._

"_Sebastian, this is an order." He commanded, shooting Claude the most despicable look he owned. "I order you to kill this demon, and not to come look for me before you have done that!" _

_He had said so only to ensure Sebastian would definitely kill Claude before coming for him. Maybe it was slightly unnecessary, but Ciel wanted to be absolutely sure of his butler's victory. Shaking off the older male's hold of his shoulder, the dark haired earl started backing off from the scene, constantly sweeping his attentive gaze over the two butler's. Both of the men had now focused their eyes on him: Claude's expression was unreadable, but the look Sebastian casted upon him looked just almost calm - but a hint of worry glimmered in the depths of his orbs. _

"_Be careful, my lord." _

_It sounded like Sebastian accepted the demand. He quickly rotated his head back to facing Claude, tensing his muscles as he prepared for the fight between two creatures from hell. A quick set smile twisting upon his lips, Ciel spun on his heel and rushed towards his carriage waiting a few meters away. Slamming the door open and quickly finding his way to his usual spot beside the window, the earl was seated and the driver of the carriage drove the horses back on the road._

_Before Claude had appeared, Ciel and Sebastian had been on their way to deliver an urgent letter of great worth to Her Majesty. The mission Queen Victoria had assigned for him had almost come to an end, the only thing left was to hand over the letter to her before midnight. The young Phantomhive followed respectfully every command Her Majesty ordered him to complete, and aimed to entirely fulfill his duty as her Guard Dog, so there was no way he'd fail to bring the letter to her. Not even Claude could prevent him from completing this mission._

_The navy blue night sky spread above the calming English countryside in such a serene, tranquil way that Ciel almost allowed himself to relax as he watched fields and forests fly by as the carriage raced down the road. His hand rested on the top of his pocket in his jacket in a protective manner, something he did out of instinct to ensure the letter was safe. Was Sebastian already done with Claude, and would he soon appear out of nowhere, opening the carriage door with one smooth movement, and apologizing with a soft amused smile for scaring his master for a second? When he was alone traveling back to London at night, he couldn't help but to feel a tiny bit insecure and unsafe without his butler tagging along, protecting him from all harm. Ciel really-_

_Unexpectedly a loud, cracking thump shook the ground a few meters in front of the carriage - as if something heavy tilted towards the road, eventually smashing with its whole weight onto the path. The horses neighed in fear, their eyes twirling in their sockets revealing the whites of their eyes, and they immediately hit the brakes, almost causing the carriage to flip over. The lights inside snapped off. Ciel who sat in the violently, unsteadily shaking carriage clung onto his seat, letting a sharp gasp escape from between his lips. What was going on?_

_The next thing he acknowledged was his drivers frightened voice shouting something in blurted out words, but then all too suddenly he quieted down. For a moment an eerie silence crept into the surroundings, causing goosebumps to run down the young earls spine. There was no way this would lead into anything good... The dark haired boy sat stiffened on his spot: just praying in his mind that he could be silhouetted against the darkness of his environment; that it was just a sick joke of Sebastian's and the butlers familiar smirking face would soon appear on the doorway; that he would awake from a nightmare and realize he was still in his bed. Then, much to Ciel's horror, the heard light, sedate foot steps approach the doorway._

"_Take him." There was no speck of doubt in his rigid tone. A man with rough facial features and sharp relentless eyes stepped forward into Ciel's sphere of vision, his large figure standing in the doorway blocking the only way to escape. For a moment, Ciel's widened blue eyes and the man's emotionless dark brown eyes gazed at each other, neither of them blinking, like the eye contact a rabbit would make with a wolf before its slaughter. Two other men walked in without a word, grabbing Ciel who attempted to break free, and stuffing a gag into his mouth preventing him from making a sound. This was it. The moment the dirty fabric was tied around his head, sealing his mouth shut, the boy knew he couldn't order Sebastian to return. What if he hadn't killed Claude yet? In that case, the demon butler wasn't even allowed to look for Ciel. Oh what an awful mess he had made..._

_As Ciel was roughly staggered on his feet and dragged out of the carriage, he saw a heavy tree lying in front of the road blocking its way back to London. These criminals must've cut down the tree to its near breaking point from beside the forest the road snaked by, and when the carriage had approached, they must've knocked the tree down. The driver rested limply his back to the back on his seat where he drove the horses from, quiet and motionless._

"_Take him to the lake. You know where." The boss of the men ordered again, and so Ciel was forced to enter the dark woods with them. It wasn't a pleasant journey at all - his hands were twisted in a painful angle behind his back and tied together with coarse rope, and he couldn't stop blaming himself for what had happened. Would Sebastian find him anymore?_

_Once again, like many times before, Ciel Phantomhive was held captive by enemies. Unlike other times, Sebastian wasn't capable of helping him tonight. The letter Queen Victoria was eagerly waiting for never arrived. Sebastian who had served Ciel as his butler only for the sole reason of devouring his soul, never got to lay his hands on it. The young Phantomhive whose time on earth was meant to continue many years after, had been chased into a dead end. His life span had run short, the clock marking his time reaching the end of it. Darkness engulfed the young earl, who longingly wished to breathe once again, he yearned for the feeling of fresh air filling his lungs, he lusted for oxygen... Bleeding after the violent acts of his capturers, Ciel Phantomhive sunk deeper into the water, his slim body being swallowed by the green, underwater world beneath the surface. _

_The rug from his mouth had been removed. As the surface gained distance by every moment, his barely conscious body managed to croak out blood gurgled words, which the water made impossible to hear. _

"_Sebastian, this is an order. Come for me."_

_xxx_

**126 years later. Summer 2014, 14th of June**

_He ran, sprinting at full speed through a darkened dusky forest he had never before been to. His destination was unknown, all he acknowledged was that somewhere in the depths of the woods someone waited for him, someone he desperately needed to reach. Sebastian ran so fast his lungs ached, unable to keep up the rapid pace. _

"_I- I'm coming-"_

"Sebastian!"

The teenager could hardly hear the voice over his own sobs.

"Sebastian, open your eyes now!"

This time his dark eyes fluttered open, revealing the sight of his own mother sitting beside his bed, glancing at his son with a very worried look in her eyes. It took a second to get used to the darkness of his bedroom, making him blink his eyes in confusion before landing his gaze on his mother. Just then Sebastian remembered that it had just been a nightmare, nothing he should bother to worry about. Whoever was waiting for him in the imaginary woods of his dream, they weren't real. It was nothing to worry about.

"Are you crying?" His mother asked carefully, her eyes glimmering in sudden wary. Sebastian furrowed his brows as if her question had been stupid. Crying? He never cried. Literally, the last time the boy had cried was years ago.

"No, don't worry about it. You may leave."

With a doubting look but without resisting, his mother stood up and walked out of his room, closing the door behind her. The moment the dark haired boy was alone in the room, he flipped onto his stomach on the bed, burring his face in the pillow. Even though the nightmare was over, the disturbing, agonizing aftertaste of it hadn't worn out. For some odd reason it felt devastating not to reach the end of the dream: as if in the end something important would've happened. Would've he found out the identity of the one waiting for him? Frustrated, Sebastian turned on his back, kicked the covers off and sat up on his bed, then falling silent and staring out of the window.

He slowly lifted his hand to his face, placing his fingertips on the pale skin right below his eye, feeling the slightly moist surface of his upper cheek. The drying salty liquid his fingers made contact to made his heart skip a beat: they were tears. Sebastian knitted his brows closer together in deep thought, wondering why had the meaningless nightmare caused him the shed tears. He rarely cried, it was a fact. Anymore he didn't feel saddened over it, since the whole thing was pointless anyway. The teenager wiped his eyes dry, despising himself for showing such evidence of vulnerability.

His alarm clock on the small desk beside his bed showed the time in bright green glowing numbers: 3:47 AM. The early morning hours had arisen, and in all honesty Sebastian would've been asleep at any other given night at this time, but now he didn't feel tired anymore. The nightmare had shaken every bit of fatigue from his mind and after such a wake-up the boy wasn't very eager to even attempt falling asleep. Instead he ended up glancing out of the window through that opened the view to the desolate, narrow street he lived on. Under the halloween-orange street lamps casting a dimmed beam of light of the smooth asphalt beneath, Sebastian thought he had seen a dark boy-like figure awaiting for someone, but before he had the chance to focus his eyes on him, the figure disappeared. Slightly bewildered, distrusting of his own eyes that played tricks on him, the teenager tore his gaze off the street. Looked like the past was coming back to him - the dark figure was approaching once again. It hadn't been the first time Sebastian had seen the boy, and he had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time either.

xxx

Authors Note: All reviews are appreciated!


	2. So close, yet so far

Let Love Bleed Red

Authors Note: I haven't updated in a while, and as an apology I made this chapter twice as long as my first! It starts off with an flashback, as you can see from the italics. Enjoy!

xxx

xxx

**Winter 2004, 12th of February**

_The rising sun climbed behind the horizon, sunlight peering through the hills beaming upon the snow capped landscape. A thick layer of powdery glimmering substance had formed an untouched blanket over the fields and meadows, even covering the roofs of houses at the city and the tops of cars parked on the streets. Early that frosty morning one of the terraced houses laying in one neat row, snowy yards separated by low wooden fences, had showed the first sign of life that had been seen on that street for the morning. The front door had been creaked open and slammed closed right after someone had stormed out, the vibration causing a small pile of snow to fall of from the roof to the feet of a young seven year old child. As the boy finished off pulling grey gloves into his freezing hands, he jogged out of the yard in hurry, his feet stomping the ground furiously as they carried him further away from home. _

_The black haired boy was forced to slow down as his lungs screamed for more oxygen, his breathing no longer steady and even, but instead only a series of shallow rasps for air. Small clouds of foggy vapor rose in the air with every breath, making him think of a fire-breathing dragon, only with the exception that a dragons breath was hot unlike his. Smiling softly at the thought, he entered a wide paved road leading to his small public school, a road with a crowd of strangers busy with their own worries. Unless he would've rushed out of the house a few minutes ago he surely wouldn't have gotten there on time._

"_Hey, is that-"_

"_Ooh, it is! Haha, look the loser's here!"_

_Within fleeting seconds all the previous peacefulness was crumbled to pieces. Two familiar kids emerged from the crowd, striving their way through the people with snide grins dominating their faces. The dark haired boy paused at once his mind desperately trying to think of a possible way of escape. _

"_Sebastiaaaaan." The other blond male sang in a mocking, wicked tone while his friend chuckled in the background. "When do you get proper clothes?"_

_Sebastian glanced down at his attire consisting of an old, cheap black winter jacket that had gotten a bit too small for his build, and worn-out trousers that had been patched from at least three spots. It wasn't his fault his mother's pay didn't provide them enough money to buy fancy clothes, but Sebastian himself was pretty comfortable in his casual wear. However, the kids at his school disagreed._

"_Do you, like, live in a rubbish dump?" The blond burst into laughter as he threw his head back in an arrogant manner, glaring at Sebastian over the bridge of his nose. The dark haired male shifted uncomfortably averting eyes and attempted to step aside to pass the children. The two blocked his try, gripping his jacket tightly and holding him to the spot, clicking their tongues disapprovingly. A few adults rushing to their work glared at the bullies with angered gazes, but made no effort of stopping them. _

"_You're so dumb. Don't go anywhere yet." The blond boy growled._

"_He isn't replying, Tom." The shorter boy complained with a scowl on his face, he had so been looking forward to seeing Sebastian being pushed around by his friend as the dark haired boy protested. "Hit him! Or should I?"_

_Sebastian narrowed his eyes in half annoyance, half despise towards himself for being a victim of these two common bullies. Throughout his life he had been a calm, collected child who didn't get into fights and solved conflicts smoothly with either ignorance or a reasonable argument to defend himself. Now like many times before he was planning to leave the scene without paying much attention to the bullies, but the two other boys weren't going to let him escape so easily. Just when Sebastian had shot his gaze up to give the laughing boys an angry glare, he noticed something rather unusual from the corner of his eye, standing on the other side of the road. Automatically he spun his head towards the peculiar abnormality that had appeared to his vision, focusing his dark brown eyes on the creature staring at him on the paved sidewalk. It was a perfectly clean outline of a young, rather short teenage boy: his figure was ebony black like the murky bottom of a well, with absolutely no recognizable facial features or other attributes visible. _

_The figure stood unmoving facing his torso towards the seven year old child who immediately picked up upon the intimidating and sinister aura surrounding him. Sebastian couldn't recall to a time he had felt such fright, his blood turning into ice water and his heart skipping unevenly a beat. Nobody else on the street looked disturbed by the figure, actually it looked like they weren't aware of it at all - their eyes glancing nonchalantly at it but instead of focusing their gaze upon the figure, they seemed to stare straight through. _

_Then unexpectedly the dark inhuman creature raised an arm and flicked its wrist towards itself, as if asking Sebastian to walk over to him crossing the busy road. The child hesitantly took a step forwards, ignoring completely the two bullies yanking at his jacket. But after a second of doubt, he shook his head in fright and started backing off towards the brick wall on the other side of the sidewalk. _

"_What are you doing, you freak?" The blond boy snapped in irritation, pulling Sebastian roughly from the jacket back towards him, snarling. "You're acting so weird."_

_Now the dark figure repeated the movement in a more demanding way as if it was an order. Finally the child seemed to gather the courage to follow the instructions and he forcefully ripped off the other kids grip of his jacket, rudely shoving him to the side and then made a run to the ghostly figure. Cars honked and the drivers hit suddenly the brakes as Sebastian sprinted across the road right before them, but no damage was done to anyone. Just when Sebastian had swiftly jumped on the sidewalk and landed unharmed on the icy asphalt, he lifted his chin up to lock eyes with the figure, but to his surprise it wasn't there anymore. He was about to open his mouth to shout that he wanted the figure back, when something else distracted him - a bloodcurdling scream from the other side of the road where he had just run from._

_The screeching of car wheels gliding against crystal clear ice pierced the air in two. Sebastian along with everyone else on the street automatically turned to the direction of the sound, panic rising inside the young boy for the second time within the span of three minutes. Paralyzed out of fear, unable of doing any good in the situation, he stared at the scene with horror-filled eyes: a navy blue car rushed from behind the corner, the driver inside furiously spinning the steering wheel in attempt to drive the roaring machinery beneath him straight onto the next road. From somewhere nearby the high-pitched cry of police sirens blaring out loud reached their ears. _

_Sebastian felt so utterly helpless. Within seconds the car had roamed shakily towards the end of the street where Sebastian stood: the eyes of the driver widening as he realized he had no control over the machine, not even after he had desperately stomped on the breaks attempting to save his pitiful life. Already hearing how the gates of hell creaked open, scraping against the ground beneath, a part of him had totally given up on survival. The car practically ran straight into the pave way, the strangers scattering away like frightened fish in a pond - the distant sound of police sirens fading into the chaos of the accident. Death knocked precisely three times on the ancient mahogany door at the very back of his mind, the sound echoing, ringing in his ears, calling him to another world._

_First only horror-stricken screaming and screeching on car wheels, but the following sound was absolutely morbid: metal crunching and glass showering onto the asphalt as the car crashed right at the opposite side of the street where Sebastian stood. Out of instinct the young child shielded his face with his arms, turning away from the hellish scene, wishing not to be hit by any metallic car parts being flung to air due to the impact. After a few seconds he dared to carefully lower his hands and peek at the car: left was only a jumble of twisted metal and unrecognizable car parts, streams of fuel flowing down the ground, shattered glass covering the surroundings. _

_Finally, he dropped his arms limply at his sides and turned back to the car. A nauseous feeling churned at the bottom of his stomach and a sensation of disgust lingered in his throat: he recognized the two lifeless bodies lying by the sturdy brick wall, thrown there as an effect of the crash. Their necks were twisted in unnatural angles allowing blood to rush under their hair onto their face in a messy manner, their bodies slouching against the wall like broken puppets, parts of their flesh sinking inward - the bones inside crumbled into tiny pieces. Sebastian was too far away to see the glass-like veil spread across their ever so frozen eyes, but something inside him whispered that it was indeed there._

_People were crying hysterically and dashing to call the ambulance, but Sebastian stood unmoving on the spot. Every second fleeting by felt as if it was being played on an old film tape in slow motion, every heartbeat seeming so surreal and dream-like, but a voice in his head pounding and reminding him that he was wide awake. His bullies were dead. Sebastian had finally seen how it looked like for someone to lose their lives, for someone to die so unexpectedly and tragically, without a seconds chance to say farewell, or even to realize it was over. What struck him the most was that... The ebony figure had saved his life._

_For a short moment he felt a warm breath at the back of his neck, a suppressed mirthless wheeze that contained a hint of a sarcastic laugh, almost as if saying, "No need to fear, I am a friend."_

_xxx_

Ever since that frosty winter morning, Sebastian had encountered the eerie figure multiple times in his life, and even though it had been ten years and he was now a seventeen year old teenage boy, the ghostly creature never stopped haunting him. It appeared behind him in mirrors, sometimes sneaked its way into pictures with him, even stood unmoving at the end of the classroom, fixating its intimidating gaze on the dark haired boy. Even though it sometimes greatly disturbed Sebastian and the teenager already suspected that his mental stability received a blow every time the figure appeared - regardless the spirit seemed to watch over him, like a guardian angel.

It was ironic since the dark shadow looked nothing like a stereotypical angel, but Sebastian would attempt to ease his racing thoughts by convincing himself that the creature was there only to keep him safe. It sometimes did feel like the figure indeed did shelter him from all harm: it led the way when Sebastian had got lost in the city when he was nine, and it had often prevented him from walking into any sort of danger. The ghost-like figure, it even ket him company when Sebastian tossed and turned in his bed at night, drowning in depression, soaking in sadness.

However, he'd no longer be able to tolerate the immense torment of living. Things hadn't changed much since he was young: his family was still poor, he was still overlooked and disliked among other people, and he still kept on seeing a certain inhuman figure nobody else could. In other words, Sebastian's life was practically just a broken record, repeating the same mundane routine in an never-ending loop.

It was unbearable to live with the maddening beast clawing inside his chest: the feeling of being pierced by a hundred daggers at once, the sensation of being mauled by a life-draining and energy-absorbing acknowledgement that there was something he had to get done. Sebastian couldn't bring himself to understand _what _was the missing piece of the incomplete puzzle - was it the fact he had never really enjoyed life?

Or was it the nightmares?

For many years now during the restless hours he lay in his bed unconsciously, the very same vivid dream kept on flashing into his mind. Sebastian hated every bit of the nightmare: everything from the smeared obscure colors to the haunting tension hanging heavily in the air. Every time this dreary nightmare interrupted his peaceful REM periods, the dream replayed the same events in a routine-like manner - like following a precisely detailed plan created by some upper power (one with a sadistically twisted sense of humor, it seemed).

The start of the dream was always blurred as if a film were to be watched through steamed unclear glass: Sebastian wasn't quite sure what was happening around him or who were the people he knew were around him. All he had managed to gather from the foggy, dizzy images flashing in his mind was that there was something deeply, _deeply _wrong...

"_...erase your existence...finally come..."_

"_Sebastian, this is an __**order**__!" _

_The wanting to protect pounded in his chest: he wanted to grasp the boys shirt and pull him right beside him, he wanted to keep the fragile boy safe from the dangers lying ahead of him... But oh, there he ran, his footsteps thumping on the sturdy ground as he rushed away... Then a chortle of a horse, hoofs beating the ground as the carriage drove his master away from him..._

"_Sebastian this is an order..."_

_The broken tone in his voice was unmistaken, young master was only barely awake anymore... Sebastian had to reach him, he had to -_

"_... Come for me."_

_- save him..._

_xxx_

**Summer 2014, 18th of June**

Dulcet tranquility of night settled upon the neighborhood, wrapping the surroundings within a sheer distinct curtain sowed out of strips of silence and ecstasy - such a hallucinatory image being cast upon the darkness. Reality was nothing like the nights illusion of a truce between good and evil: in all secrecy a stained soul plotted the end of an era, it's ploy going undiscovered by most.

The shallow breath that slipped off Sebastian's bloodless lips broke the untouched silence. The sound that would've been so insignificantly blended within the hurries of day time, pierced the air as church bells that would've suddenly echoed through a desolated graveyard.

His fully-dressed form was visible in the old opaque mirror that was hung on the whitewashed walls, his reflection revealing every detail of his appearance to his own dark eyes narrowing at the sight of himself. Sebastian had never held any noticeable interest in his own refection nor did his appearance rank high on the list of things he held in importance, but for some odd reason he struggled to maintain the urge of glancing at the mirror, gazing at the slim teenage boy trapped behind the glass.

There, in his reflection, he saw the man he hated. The exact same facial features arranged in a mask of apathy and disinterest; the same fair complexion and skin so delicate it looked like a pinch would forever damage it; and the same ebony fringe slipping on his forehead. Even the eyes were the same inky deep shade, tinting the same darkness as desert skies, staring right at the mirror with a hollow gaze, eerily empty like open graves.

His reflection, down to the last cell, was a well-coordinated, precise clone of himself. And oh, did he despise the sight.

But tonight he'd end it all, he'd make those penetrating eyes close their lids from the horrors of consciousness.

His soul would soon wander off far away from anyone's reach, it didn't matter if it fell down into the lava-dominating world of inferno or if it was redeemed to the evergreen meadows of harmony - all that mattered was that Sebastian Michaelis existed no more.

And as the front door creaked open allowing a cold wind to gush inside the moment it was pushed parted and a lonesome figure slipped out to the night, something awakened inside the remnants of a long-forgotten soul. Hopeful expectance crawled up from the depthless sea of nonexistence, an emotion that the wilting soul hadn't realized he still held in possession: for 126 long, tedious years he had dwelled in sheer anguish, venom and melancholy.

The touch of malice was weakly present, but not half as strong as the despair that had engulfed his entire existence within its scalding hot flames.

Sebastian was coming for him.

xxx

On night's like this when Sebastian's overall awareness and attentiveness had rapidly spurted into a steep increase, possibly triggered by the surreal swirling acknowledgement of how close he was to the boundaries of death - even things he normally wasn't bothered by seemed to distort disturbingly. Blurred and bended lines formed unnaturally threatening shadows; shadows that almost looked like they were stretching and prolonging in order to reach their bony fingers towards him; morphing into something ghastly and frightening; looming behind his sphere of vision just to sink their fangs into his flesh as the entered the woods.

Of course, it wasn't necessary for Sebastian to choose this specific forest out of all the desolated places around the English countryside, but something in him slashed at his heart even at the thought of not going in.

He had walked for quite a bit, the soft rusting of pebbles cradling his paranoia into a delusional belief of comfort: the rhythmic, continuing sound tricking his subconsciousness by the familiar sound. From far away, he had distinguished the teal-green lush opacity which unmistakably was the dreaded forest he was about to enter, the obscure colors of the forest and the dark sky blending together fallaciously. His stilt-like legs moving oddly stiffly as if they had been dripped in glue, carried him step by step closer to the forest, making it easier to see the paths and cracks between the closely stacked trees. Without a moments doubt, Sebastian hardened his gaze and determinately stepped into the forest, making his way deeper into the darkness.

Little did Sebastian know, but on the exact same trail he wandered on, over a century ago a terrified, devastated earl had been roughly dragged along to the location his ferocious slaughter would be preformed at...

xxx

**Spring 1888, 18th of April**

_Ciel felt an odd stinging sensation peck at his eyes and scrabble on the walls of his throat, but the venom-laced deadly sin, pride, had grown its roots entrenched upon his soul. Refusing to submit even to his humanly temptation to cry out loud from the agony, the boy stubbornly forced his quivering lips sealed and stared at the serpentine forest path before him with a newly ruthless tint in his eyes. He was the Earl of Phantomhive, and he would __**not **__stutter - even if he were moribund._

_As he was forced to tremble further into the labyrinthine depths of the woods, Ciel gritted his teeth together in anticipation and fidgeted with the coarse rope tied around his wrists twisted behind his back. The individual gloomy trees had gained distance in between, leading to a glade in the forest. _

_Flicking his eyes at the cerulean blue tint glaring behind the crack between two pine trees, feelings bottled up inside the navy-haired male conflicted: at the same time he felt fascinated and curious of what lay behind the last few trees, but simultaneously his stomach sank in morbid comprehension. One of the men who had captured him gripped firmly the collar of Ciel's shirt, which he earl pridefully gave a scornful look at, and yanked the boy with him as he strolled off to the small tranquil lake resting motionlessly in all serenity._

"_I apologize, young Earl, but your existence is a danger to our illegal business."_

_The young Phantomhive was staggered to the feet of the rough-featured man who apparently led the criminal activity of these men, despite his reluctant protests and unclear mumbles under the gag. After being kicked on the shin and pushed off his balance, Ciel panted heavily through his nose on his knees upon the dry tangled grass, refusing to look up at the man towering above him. _

_And, he did not sound sorry at all._

"_Force the brat to look up." The despicable man snarled, sounding like he was losing his patience. Ciel's ocean blue eyes glared with an acid-laced murderous look, but his chin was still lowered and his dark fringe hung in front of his eyes so the sight was never bared to the criminal man, instead kept strictly to the ground. But once one of his subordinates entangled their fingers within Ciel's dark locks and pulled his head to a vulnerable position, exposing his neck and forcing him to lock eyes with the man before him, the hateful glint in those eyes surely wasn't hard to notice._

"_Tch."_

_The man leaned forwards, his large figure seeming very threatening as he loomed over as the young earl staring resentfully at him. Ignoring the loath unclear yelp blurred by the dirty fabric stuffed in Ciel's mouth, the man ran his finger atop of the eyepatch covering his right eye, feeling the closed eyelid and the eyelashes framing it like black lace. _

"_I've always wondered what is under this." With a snide grin, his filthy fingers fiddled over the knot behind his head tying the eyepatch on place, tugging at the stings intending on to remove it. _

_Terror lit up in his only visible eye, macabre fright swimming in the turbulence of startling blue and lustrous abyss of cobalt. Once the eyepatch was softly slid off its usual place upon his right eye, the violet iris with a demonic symbol carved like a tattoo upon its glassy surface made the criminal's own pungent brown eyes widen. _

"_What the hell is that?" At first the decibels in his voice rapidly ascended, the sight of the unnatural eye shaking his confidence for a fleeting second. But, the head of the criminals wasn't low on IQ. Puzzle pieces smoothly settled upon their places with a soft click, and on the behalf of his plans for overthrowing the Queen's Guard Dod off his power, his realization would ensure that his future would flourish. _

_He wasn't sure __**how**__, but this had to have something to do with how effectively and precisely the head of the Phantomhive slay his enemies and took down criminal organizations. _

_How would he overcome it? There was only one way..._

"_Deform his right eye." For such violent words he had spoken them with indifference and adamant determination. Standing up once again, he gazed at the wide-eyed earl expressionlessly, relentlessly uncaring of his obvious horror._

"_Deform it...?" One of the other men echoed, sounding a bit hesitant. "Is that necessary?"_

_Ciel watched in desperate fright as the criminals pungent brown eyes shifted and turned to glare at the subordinate who had spoken those disobedient words. For a moment his dry lips pursed together concealing his rage inside his threatening exterior, and much like the deathly silence before a storm - everyone nearby could sense the outburst that was going to reach its climax any moment. _

"_Don't question my orders." The tone of his voice had dived dangerously low, and when combined with the sedate footsteps the criminal leader started to take towards his subordinate, the concentration of tension in the air was red-hot crowded upon the two conflicting men. _

_The young Phantomhive quickly picked upon the signs of the attention switching gears and focusing on the criminals themselves, and with adrenaline gushing through his veins making his body more capable of escape than it had before, Ciel knew this could be the only shot he had at survival. If he only managed to rip off this gag out of his mouth, summoning Sebastian would be no challenge at all. _

'_It's now or never', he thought in anticipation before gritting his teeth together, feeling the fabrics rough surface rub against his tongue, and then he abruptly sprung up, staggering onto his feet and making a hasty run to the forest. Moving swiftly was far harder than he had expected it to be because the rope twisting his wrists behind his back still remained on place, and Ciel wasn't accustomed to this type of running at all, escaping without the natural swing of his arms helping to maintain his balance. _

"_Catch him!" _

_It was quite clear from the outlook of things that Ciels chances of managing to escape by merely running away were minuscule, so he rationalized as he leaped into the forest that the best option was to forcefully tear off the gag and call Sebastian for help. _

_One of the men who has stood closest to Ciel rapidly caught up to him, grabbing his expensive clothing by the shoulder in attempt to slam the boy to the nearest tree and knock him unconscious, but this time Ciel had no intention of letting himself be caught so easily. Sinking his knee into the soft vulnerable flesh of the man's stomach, his enemy immediately responded in a reflexive jerk forwards, mouth agape and lungs emptied of oxygen, which gave the navy-haired male a perfect opportunity to plunge towards him sending both of them flying to the ground. _

_The pain-blinded criminal lay upon his back on the snaky roots crisscrossing over the forest grounds, grimacing in displeasure, but the young Phantomhive wasted none of his precious time. Ciel weakly rose up to his knees, his lean chest rising and lowering tiresomely in the pace of his gasps for air, and the approaching sound of footsteps thumped on the ground almost as if rushing the earl to quickly get on his feet again. _

_But right now the world looked all-too maleficent and eager for his demise from the viewpoint of two bleary-eyed violet and blue orbs, that instead of injecting a desperate lust for escape into his veins, it only seemed to allow a passage for hopelessness and despair into his system. He had almost given up when a silvery glimmer caught his attention from the corner of his eye, the metallic shine of a blade in his sphere of vision bringing his new hope with its existence. _

_The man he had tackled had accidentally dropped a knife to the ground, but the time was nearly up._

_Ciel rolled to the knife awaiting for him amidst the wilting leaves and swung himself so his back faced the knife, his tied-up hands desperately reaching for the handle of the knife. Once his fiddling fingers managed to brush the surface and then pull it closer, he wrapped his around the handle and rotated the knife until it's serrated blade pressed against his ropes. This entire process was done under extreme pressure and adrenaline, causing the young earl to almost forget to breathe as he succeeded to pierce through his chains, freeing his hands and bringing him just one more step closer to securing his survival._

_But the other men had found him lying behind the bushes, panic-dripped voices shouting futile words to each other as they leaped towards Ciel who had stumbled on his feet again, swaying side to side from all the pressure set upon him, his hands yanking furiously at his gag. All his mind screamed for was Sebastian, the only person he knew could save him now from this dead end: he sound of his name piercing through his mind in a lighting-like flash; reverberating and clashing into the walls of his skull; filling his entire brain with adrenaline, horror and that nine-lettered name - Sebastian._

_The next thing he acknowledged was being hit down by strong, muscular arms and forced on his stomach, wrists violently and painfully twisted behind his back in a unnatural angle that almost dislocated his shoulders. His muffled screams were made nearly inaudible by the gag in his mouth, but it was not difficult to tell if he was hurt or not, judging by the tremor that shook his trembling body and the grimace on his face. _

"_Fucking brat."_

"_Just do it here, deform that weird eye of his."_

_Ciel scraped the soil beneath with the tips of his shoes and struggled beneath the fierce arms that held him sternly on the spot, hysterically staring at the other men while letting protesting screams emerge from the bottom of his diaphragm. _

"_He's just going to run away again, better mangle those legs as well."_

"_Good idea - hey Colin, you got the axe?"_

_Then followed a wave of pain that absorbed its influx all the way to the core of his soul._

_xxx_

**Summer 2014, 18th of June**

It was a beautiful sight that bared to his eyes, there was something downright baleful about the entire surrounding, but it didn't mean that its sinister beauty would've withered away. The considerate footsteps that Sebastian carefully deposited upon the unruffled ground led towards the lake, placidly awaiting for its next victim to envelope within its life-draining waters.

Had he been here before? He was sure that he hadn't, but from the very basis of his soul a déjà vu -type of feeling clawed uneasily at his chest.

He paused in front of the untouched lake that patiently remained motionless, and scrutinized at its treacherous appearance: it covered a fairly large amount of land, it's entire periphery was swallowed by reeds and pebbles, and overall the atmosphere that hung in the air was far from the eerie pressure that he had felt in the surrounding forest.

It was nothing like the forest.

It wasn't just eerie, it was _antagonistic_. If Sebastian closed his eyes he could visualize vividly standing by a lake dyed in deep crimson, concealing decaying bodies under its mirror-like surface. He just had to wonder what kind of cruelty must've occurred here in order for an enigmatical lake to morph into something so virulent and gory.

There was no time to ponder on such insignificant questions. Sebastian licked his lips in anticipation, almost tasting the malice palatable in the air, but despite all that, Sebastian felt like he was returning home, back to something precious and dear he wanted to embrace tightly.

There was something deeply wrong with this place, but there was also something he held in immense importance. A sense of familiarity settled upon his mind, something he just couldn't find words to describe - all he knew was that he was now finally at peace.

"I'm back." He breathed. "I've come back."

xxx

Authors Note: Reviews are appreciated!


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